Client: Hua Fu Development Co.

Overview

This project was for a travertine wall behind the reception desk in the lobby of a new high rise luxury residential tower in central Taipei. The finished sculpture is bronze with a red ferric nitrate patina, 13' 2″ high x 9' 2″ wide.

Goals

The Chinese place a high value on good fortune and it is considered extremely important to have auspicious displays and symbols at the entry ways of homes. Bringing these concepts to fine art required the Chinese interior designers to explain to me as a Western artist the many ways in which a work of art might reinforce, or potentially violate, these concepts. Eventually we settled on this among numerous concepts I proposed. The color red was chosen for the bronze, and the number three, these being auspicious symbols. Bronze is also know as one of the most enduring metals from antiquity, which corresponds to reverence for ancestors which is an enduring Confucian concept. The number three is symbolized in the three phases of the composition. The upper section is random and chaotic, the middle section is where the various ribbons start to coalesce, and the lower third where all elements come together in a single point. These three stages of knowledge symbolize the human will and the making of sense and organization out of chaos.

Process

The interior designers had developed an interior 3D model complete with accurate furnishings, marble wall surfaces, light fixtures, tables, and fabric and carpeting absolutely accurate to what was eventually supplied for the real building. This level of planning I have never really come across. At one point the client objected to one element of the sculpture that they thought looked too similar to a certain type of Chinese sword, which I was not aware of. The art consultants had to explain to me that it is very bad form in Chinese culture to have knives or weapons on display at a home's entry, so I was asked to change this, which I willingly complied with.

Additional Information

The building is called "Jun Cang" which loosely translates as "Rare Treasure." It is located at No.35, Zhulun St. Zhongshan, Taipei 104, Taiwan.